Montreal Canadiens training camp roster was announced.
Montreal Canadiens management released the names of the player’s that will be attending training camp for the upcoming season.
The 2020-21 season, or just the 2021 season at this point, will begin on January 13 with the Habs taking on the Toronto Maple Leafs. The pair of rivals will be joined in a division by the other five Canadian teams, the Ottawa Senators, Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks.
In order to avoid as many Covid-19 related complications as possible, the NHL formed this Canadian division to ensure teams do not need to be crossing the border between the United States and Canada with regularity.
Training camp is set to begin for the Canadiens on Sunday, with 42 players heading to Montreal to take part in the activities. Camp will be just ten days long before the regular season begins so there will be less players invited than there normally would be. 42 is still a large number but it will give the Habs management the option to split them into two groups of 18 skaters and three goaltenders which is a very manageable figure.
𝐄𝐍 𝐑𝐀𝐏𝐏𝐄𝐋: 42 joueurs sont invités au camp d'entraînement à compter du 3 janvier
— Canadiens Montréal (@CanadiensMTL) December 30, 2020
𝐈𝐂𝐘𝐌𝐈: 42 players will report to training camp on Jan. 3#GoHabsGo pic.twitter.com/1R9slQOSrU
The 42 players are:
Forwards: Brendan Gallagher, Nick Suzuki, Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Josh Anderson, Phillip Danault, Ryan Poehling, Joel Teasdale, Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Lukas Vejdemo, Jordan Weal, Laurent Dauphin, Joseph Blandisi, Jacob Lucchini, Alex Belzile, Artturi Lehkonen, Kevin Lynch, Michael Frolik, Jake Evans, Tyler Toffoli, Brandon Baddock, Tomas Tatar, Jonathan Drouin and Corey Perry.
Defensemen: Shea Weber, Ben Chiarot, Cale Fleury, Jeff Petry, Alexander Romanov, Joel Edmundson, Gustav Olofsson, Victor Mete, Noah Juulsen, Xavier Ouellet, Otto Leskinen and Brett Kulak.
Goaltenders: Cayden Primeau, Carey Price, Jake Allen, Vasili Demchenko, Charlie Lindgren and Michael McNiven.
The notable omissions from camp are Jesse Ylonen, Josh Brook and Cam Hillis. However, there are a few reasons for this. First of all, teams are only allowed to invite 36 skates and the Habs are at that limit. They had to draw the line somewhere and it makes sense to allow Ylonen to continue playing in Finland for now and leave Brook in Germany where he is playing.
Both players can continue to play pro overseas before joining the Laval Rocket when their camp opens in late January.
Hillis on the other hand is a bit tougher to explain. He hasn’t played at all this season and is going to be entering his first pro season. It would make sense to get him into camp and get his feet wet so he is ready to go when AHL camp opens. Wouldn’t it make more sense to bring Hillis to camp and make a 29 year old veteran like Kevin Lynch, who has 0 NHL games in his career, wait until AHL camp opens?
It’s not a huge deal, but it would have been nice to see Hillis at camp and get him the best opportunity to start his first pro season on the right foot.
It’s hard to believe, but the Habs camp will begin in just four days. The start of a promising season is just hours away!